Ryan Nelsen to retire, Truth reporting

by Cameron Slater on January 23, 2013 at 2:22pm

John Matheson at Truth has broken the news that All Whites great Ryan Nelsen has official retired from football and made the call to Ricki Herbert:

Truth can reveal Nelsen rang his New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert at 1pm this afternoon to break the news.
Nelsen, who takes over as Toronto FC coach on Feb 1, will play his last game for Queens Park Rangers on Jan 29.

NZ Football has hoped Nelsen would continue to play for the All Whites until the team qualified for the 2014 World Cup.

But Nelsen has decided the task at Toronto is too big and he needs to focus fully on his first coaching role.

Good on Nelsen. He has his future & his family to think about. The last thing Toronto FC will want is their new manager hired on a megabuck package swanning off to a third rate soccer nation on the other side of the world to help them qualify for a tournament that they have only the remotest chance of qualifying 16th never mind buckleys of winning it. There’s also the chance of injury to Nelsen..

Toronto FC’s financial backing is massive. Previous majority shareholders, the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund (sorry about that WO) have just sold their 80% shareholding for C$1.32 BILLION. As a bye the bye Cameron you will be delighted to know that the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund assets total C$117 billion.

John Q Public

I’m sure any injury sustained in WC qualifier would have eff all affect on his coaching ability.

Gazzaw

Oh really. A broken leg or a hammy isn’t going to affect his coaching ability?

Suggest you join the Gareth Morgan team of experts.

Hazards001

Good for him. The man has time and again proven to be a spirited Kiwi, well over and above anything the tall poppy syndrome arseholes could ever try chop him down for. I wish him all the best in his new career.